Under conventional practice military tracked vehicles are equipped with cylindrical roadwheels that ride along the upper faces of the hingedly-connected blocks that form the endless tracks. The roadwheels are usually carried by roadarms that are swingably attached to the hull sidewalls; spring (suspension) elements within the hull act downwardly on the roadarms (and upwardly on the hull) so that the hull weight is resiliently transmitted through the roadarms to the roadwheels. Terrain disturbances produce momentary increases in the upwardly-directed ground reaction forces on the wheels; the wheels thereby are displaced upwardly in accordance with the terrain disturbance. Optimum suspension action maintains the hull in a stable attitude irrespective of the magnitude or frequency of terrain disturbance.
Especially at high speeds or during pivot turns, the road disturbances can produce sidewise track dislocations. To counteract such actions it is common practice to equip the tracks with upstanding prong-like guides at regularly-spaced points therealong. The roadwheels are in turn formed with peripheral guide grooves, so that as the roadwheels roll along the track upper faces the grooves in the wheels will move past successive ones of the prongs; the prong side surfaces scrape on the wheel groove surfaces to maintain the tracks and wheels in vertical alignment.
Since the prongs extend upwardly from the track plane the effective prong surfaces are located well above ground level where the disturbing forces are generated. The line-of-action of the counteracting force (the wheel scrape area) is thus displaced from the line-of-action of the disturbing force, with consequent disadvantages as regards excessive loadings on the prongs, potential tilting of the track blocks, and excessive wear on the block connector pins.
The present invention involves relocation of the track guide system so that the prongs are on the roadwheels rather than on the tracks. The prongs extend downwardly from the roadwheels into guide openings in the tracks, so that guide action is accomplished nearer to the ground surface. This minimizes the extent of the force couple that exists between the disturbance force and guide force. The invention hopefully will reduce wear and breakage of various mechanisms in the wheel-track system.